Hammers To Test Sven's Mettle
I can't believe it's already the start of the new season tomorrow - where did the Summer go to?
City start their campaign with an awkward looking away trip to West Ham where a pack of vulture-like press will hovering, just waiting to get their claws into Sven in the event of the slightest slip-up.
Make no mistake, the hatchet-happy hacks that write for the national press just can't wait for their first chance to stick the knife into Sven and the new look City, but hopefully they won't be given that opportunity tomorrow.
Like City, the Hammers have spent big over the summer with a lot of personnel changes, but with Curbishly at the helm, they will surely be a much tougher prospect than last season.
London always seems to be a bit of a graveyard for City, so to start the season with an away trip to the Capital is a little cruel. I suspect that over the course of the season the Upton Park will turn out to be a bit of a home fortress with very few away teams coming away with all three points.
City are a bit exposed at the back with unfortunate injuries to Isaksson and Hart, so young Kasper Schmeichel is on standby to play in goal, although it is thought that Hart may recover in time.
I'd happily settle for a draw tomorrow - preferably not a 0-0; a goal or two would be nice for the City away fans who will be braving the long trip down to the East End.
If the worst does happen and City come away with nothing then I hope we don't see the start of the "Sven Out" campaign by some disgruntled City fans. We need to be realistic here, it's going to take time for Sven to forge a team out of the individual players he's brought to the club over the summer; that's not going to happen overnight, but please can it happen before the 19th when we play Rags in the home Derby!
City (from): Hart, Schmeichel, Onuoha, Sun, Richards, Dunne, Corluka, Garrido, Ball, Hamann, Geovanni, Fernandes, Elano, Ireland, Johnson, Petrov, Bianchi, Vassell, Samaras, Bojinov, Corradi.
7 comments:
Like you say, with all the changes, a point tomorrow would be a decent result.
GREEN
Spector
Ferdinand
Upson
McCartney
Paintsil
Noble
jungberg
Boa Morte
Bellamy
Ashton
dont fear we have signed Richard Martin to cover between the posts - who you ask - well here is your answer...................
bugger if I know
Rayleighblue
definitely need to play Dunnie on right hand side to shore up the defence and protect the 'keeper
Looking at the WHU line-up it could be one of our easier games this season ???
No - I don't expect a result from this one, or from Derby midweek. I think Sven will use them as training exercises to get us lined up for the main match next week. Once we've picked up a result from that one. we'll start to fly. From then on it's going to be like '67 - '68 all over again. Remember? The Ballet on Ice? The fights at Stoke? The takeover of the Clock End at Arsenal? And the Leazes End at Newcastle? You had to be there. And it's coming back boys and girls. Can't you feel it?
The best team in the land and all the world are on the move!
Sven's done the business.
Anyome else delighted? Listening to 5 Live, they were unbelievably negative during the match, but actually became more positive afterwards.
Post a Comment